Watchdog Group Names Deal One of the Nation's Worst Governors

Thursday Georgia governor Nathan Deal was named one of the worst governors in America by a Washington watchdog group.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, released a report ranking governors based on ethics.

They allege that Governor Deal used his gubernatorial campaign to benefit his daughter-in-law and obstructed an ethics investigation into his business dealings.

They also claim Deal resigned from his Congressional seat to avoid an ethics investigation.

Brian Robinson, spokesperson for Governor Deal's Office sent us this response to the report:

"We're releasing a list, too. We've named CREW as the #1 Biggest Fraud Group in Washington -- and that's saying something in that swamp. CREW has baselessly attacked an upstanding and ethical leader for years now, and we've disproven every charge. But you don't have to take our word that this is just a partisan attack organization masquerading as an objective watchdog. Just look at the list. They say 2/3 of Republican governors are corrupt but one Democrat gets mentioned. No credible news organization would publish anything so clearly biased and in our case, proven untrue."

To be fair, there are two Democrats mentioned in the report, not just one.

CREW is a non-profit, non-partisan Washington watchdog group that has been around for ten years.

We spoke with Executive Director Melanie Sloan by phone about the report - including the fact that it is mostly critical of Republicans.

"Because more of the Republican governors are corrupt," said Sloan. "And Nathan Deal is at the top of the list. It is hard to find a worse governor in America than Nathan Deal. He's got some tough company, there are five others who are pretty bad. But it's hard to find someone who is more willing to use his position for his personal self-enrichment than Nathan Deal."

In addition to the Worst Governors report, CREW compiled a separate report on Deal alone.